The New Pilgrims
by Eduard Tubin
Summary: My attempt to add humor to a dystopia. I have used the names of Avatar - the Last Airbender Characters butthey aren't from that Universe. Two pilots from the outside are shot down over Panem and kept in District 12.
1. Chapter 1

**Tales of the Ghosts of the Future**

**Chapter 1: The New Pilgrims**

"You say you never had planned to fly over Panem territory." Romulus Thread viewed the small girl sitting in the creaky wooden chair with a good deal of xenophobic suspicion. "You claim you were shot down and had no choice but to make a landing here given the weather."

Romulus Thread never had much of an imagination and the fairy like creature sitting in front of his desk demanded the utmost from his ability to cope. The girl and the boy pilots had come from the outside world and were_ 'artificial humans' _or as he knew it: cyborgs. Both of them had small slender, fit bodies, dark brown hair and amber eyes. The Capitol had its share of oddities; they would fit in had that been the only thing odd about them. As Thread questioned the female pilot, she flexed a set of fine, yellow wings with black borders made up of black diamond shaped yellow spots.

"We weren't planning to land here but we had no choice." The little pilot sitting in the uncomfortable wooden chair sternly objected. "We were flying well over two hundred knots off the coast when a missile struck us and took out our starboard engine and damaged the wing. We had no choice but to try to find a place to land because our plane sustained too much damage to make it back to Reykjavik or to fly on to Kingston."

"We found a good deal of equipment on your aircraft perfectly suited for spying." Thread sat back in his throne like wooden chair and tapped his black wooden desk. Thread watched her for a moment. She looked harmless but no one had any idea of her full capability. Both of them could fly and flew very well – a creature with flight made the best pilot. He had seen her unfold her butterfly like wings: a single flap held enough power to send papers and files flying. Her wings remained folded and behind her over the back of the chair.

"The Caribbean Republic ordered a weather observation plane and my colleague and I had the contract to deliver it!" The little pilot banged her hands on the desk in protest. "The Caribbean weather office needed the equipment for forecasting tropical storms and hurricanes."

Thread gave her a long thoughtful look. She had curious amber eyes, a uniform consisting of a gold and red trimmed black tunic that came to just below her knees and a sturdy set of boots with loose fitting red pants. She wore her dark brown hair in a delicate bun held up with a gold hair pin. She proved hard to read except for a certain dislike of him and District 12.

"So you and your friend Karo are ferry pilots?" He said unemotionally. "You fly aircraft to customers around the world for_ The Sukhoi Aerospace Group_?"

"I have explained that. We're ferry pilots." The young girl moved her long bangs out of her face. "You _took_ all of our papers in your looting."

Thread took out a thin blue book from his desk. "You are a cyborg? A _Hyperdine Model GF450 Pilot Series_? You and your co – pilot are the same series and were brought online fourteen years ago? You two look a good deal alike." He leafed through the book. "I understand the_ Sukhoi Corporation _holds your current ferry contract."

The girl nodded as she prepared to leave.

"I have sent off copies of the documents on the plane for translation." Thread leaned forward in his large leather chair. "I trust your word _and_ the words of the translators will agree in all but the most trivial respects?"

"If you have proficient Japanese translators then they should."

Romulus Thread put the blue book back into the drawer of his desk and it locked as he slid it shut.

"Well...we have spoken with both you and your friend Karo." Thread motioned with his hand for the girl to remain. "He told us much the same story; in fact he told us everything you have down to the last details. For now, I'll attribute this to your perfect electronic brains and picture perfect memories." He motioned again and two guards appeared from the hall outside. "We've decided to put you up in a place called _Victor's Village_ as we don't want you talking to the locals. You will stay away from the fence around District 12: we have it electrified around the clock for security purposes."

The guards approached slowly.

"You will go with these two gentlemen." He waved and pulled out a tablet computer from his desk. He had ruffled the pride of the girl which was a good start.

Thread began a report as soon as the doors had closed. Cybernetic technologies in the outside world had surged ahead as Karo and Azula – the two pilots showed. They were a full head shorter than the teenagers their age but this made sense – a small pilot weighed less. He had a coup with these two: President Snow and his scientists owed him for bringing them such fine examples of high technology. He began to dictate into his computer.

She had a Peacekeeper on either side of her and their automatic weapons meant business. They didn't look like trained law enforcement and she was new to the District; perceived as a threat by their boss. She wanted to flex her wings as the cold air soaked them but she feared she might hit one of them. Her wings could lift her off the ground and had the power to break open a human skull.

* * *

The Peacekeepers must have understood this. They waited for her to comply and never used force as they led her to her new home. They trudged through the deep snow. The Peacekeepers found it knee high although Azula found it came up to her belly and her wings dragged along in the fresh snow making them even colder. If Thread wanted her to stay in one house, the snow served to imprison her quite well.

Karo had made the same trip prior in the day and Azula saw him resting on a ruddy red couch as the Peacekeepers led her into the house.

"I love this place." Karo helped Azula to the musty smelling couch. "We have been made to feel most welcome and the police ensure we won't have any parking violations."

Karo had felt the cold and the snow. He had dragged his wings through the cold stuff and now felt completely chilled. He could stand the cold but the snow had worked its wet way into his clothes and he felt completely chilled. He had the reaction of someone thrown into cold water and he still had not managed to quit shivering and his brain worked slowly and kept taking time to find words. He understood full well he couldn't leave the house for long in the deep snow: if he fell and got stuck, he'd die. He had an ugly pink comforter for Azula.

"They think we're a joke." Azula stuttered as she grabbed the blanket. "We're machines to them. How do we prove them wrong and get out of this?"

Karo had never thought about this. He had always had a certain purpose in his life, the instincts engineered into him to carry out his duties and whether by design or because of a personality quirk; he had never thought too much about being a machine. Technology had made genetic engineering sophisticated enough to make humans to order and millions of people had acquired partly artificial brains and would have died or been crippled in horrid ways without them. He viewed himself as a human with modifications.

Karo stood up and paced the room and in his quiet manner stated: "I haven't got an answer for that."

"You saw the gallows."

Karo felt the room grow dark in spite of the bright light of the midwinter afternoon.

"Harsh conditions make for harsh people." Karo looked out of the window of the aging house. "At least we haven't seen it put to use."

"They_ will _take us apart." Azula had begun to shiver less.

* * *

They had been provisioned with a fine old wood stove and some sensitive soul had stoked it to drive off the cold he found so horrible. He decided to suppress the image of the gallows as best he could and let the wood heat warm him up.

"What they won't find is what makes us – us." Karo watched a pumpkin orange cat run across the yard between their house and the neighbor's.

The television offered gruesome reruns of previous _Hunger Games_ which deeply offended Karo and Azula's tastes. The forty two inch screen up on the wall had nothing else on offer – nothing other than one channel run by the state and one prime time show – reruns of the _Hunger Games_. Karo and Azula agreed no to ever turn it on and hoped the authorities couldn't force them to watch.

The Peacekeepers under the command Romulus Thread had confiscated everything they could carry off the plane. Karo and Azula had their clothing and harmless personal items returned but the authorities kept anything that looked advanced or suspect and Karo already imagined they had plans to take the plane apart and ship it to their engineers.

The day made him feel a bit better. He could feel the warmth of the sun through the living room window and despite the banks of snow in the front yard; he wanted to go out.

"We're we expecting to be arrested?" Karo asked Azula as she tried to make tea on the wood stove. "Someone's knocking at the door."

Karo had stared out of the living room window all morning and even an arrest or another one of Thread's interrogations would break the boredom.

"Yes?" Karo opened the door without hesitation.

A blond haired boy with blue eyes and blond hair stood in the doorway with a wicker basket.

"I'm Peeta. I live next door." He smiled.

Karo had never had seen anyone in District 12 smile at him.

Peeta had seen these odd little people that morning struggling in the snow trying to walk. They didn't belong. Karo's amber colored eyes had a strange look in them – amber eyes weren't uncommon in the Capitol. Unlike people from the Capitol working their way into debt with cosmetic lenses, Karo didn't blink like a human. He had never seen a person with butterfly wings outside of children's books and it him time to collect his wits.

"I brought some bread for you." Peeta announced and pulled a white towel off the basket showing two well made loaves. "Welcome to District 12 – you may not feel welcome."

"I've met Thread..." Azula said sadly as she waited for the kettle to boil. "We're not suppose to mix with the locals."

"The Peacekeepers give those in _Victor's Village_ a few liberties." Peeta answered back. "You can't expect to arrive in the neighborhood and not be welcomed."

Karo motioned the young man inside as the cold air wafted into the house. "Can you get us past the electric fence?"

The answer was no.

Peeta carried Karo on his shoulder. The distance from _Victor's Village_ to the town square was under a kilometer but Karo and his friend Azula were _not at all able to cope_ in the snow without looking pathetic as their wings dragged, they strggled and fell over or got stuck. They looked like pathetic little children as they struggled to keep their footing and they getting trapped in drifts. Peeta offered to carry Karo to the town square expecting the little pilot to weigh as much as a twelve year old child. Karo was freakishly light; far lighter than he ought to be. Karo was freakishly strong as well. He spread out his orange and black wings that reminded Peeta of those on butterflies and when they caught the slight breeze, Peeta felt a push that almost had enough power to knock him over.

Peeta had heard rumors the two foreigners were artificial people; made by some powerful nation as spies. If Karo was a spy; he had unorthodox methods or was completely incompetent. Karo chatted constantly about music or science or what Peeta thought of this or that. Peeta had to steer clear of anything hinting at politics or religion even if Karo felt free to offer up his opinion. He talked to Peeta about the warmth of the sun and how he had never seen a snow storm. From time to time, he'd stop speaking, his ears twitched as if picking up some unheard sound Peeta couldn't hear. Karo began the conversation where he had left off. Peeta found him odd but a pleasant enough person.

Thread watched through his office window. Peeta had a kind heart and to him, it made sense he had become friends with Karo. In Thread's mind, this wasn't a bad thing because it distracted Karo. He had begun the process of looting the plane and sending every piece of high technology off to the Capitol for analysis.

Peeta gently lifted Karo to the ground. While chatty, Karo was a rare cheery soul.

"Don't stray too far." Peeta cautioned. "I'll take you back in an hour. If you grow cold, you can go in the bakery and warm up."

Karo nodded in a polite manner and Peeta walked off to help his family. Karo walked along the freshly dug out streets and whistled. Unlike the locals, Karo whistled new and oddly compelling tunes and ignored the stunned looks of the locals: they had heard the news of the odd arrivals but most had yet to see on of them.

Thread watched through his office window which overlooked the town square. Karo ran along the path cleared with snow and with a single leap, caught the air and flew up. The takeoff looked a bit clumsy but once in flight; Karo showed utmost grace.

The locals heard a massive rush of air as Karo lifted off the ground and in a perfect ascent cleared the leafless tops of the trees around the courtyard and turned into the sun. The cloud of snow Karo had kicked up had only begun to clear when Thread came out of the Justice Hall and watched Karo sail out over town on a heading toward the Seam.

Thread had called the two newcomers into his office. He had orders to leave them unharmed that had come from President Snow but he felt the flight of Karo needed a good dressing down. Karo and Azula trotten in the office as the two guards Thread had sent guided them in.

"We can't have you two taking off and heading anywhere they want to go." Thread paced his office and glowered at the two pilots. "The locals can't have the impression such a freedom exists or they won't keep the peace and I'm here to keep the peace."

"I can't go very far." Karo answered back with confidence. "I have flight as a safety feature so I can bail in the event of an accident. Think of it as a built in parachute. Five clicks in this weather and I'm knackered."

* * *

"I have an issue with you leaving the district and flying past the fence." Thread found himself feeling slightly ridiculous for having to lecture a midget for flying under his own power. "We have the fence because wild creatures such as wolves and bears roam the woods and they should have no problem making a lunch out of you." Thread straightened up. "You don't want to be torn apart by wolves – do you?"

Karo had discovered the shabby fence around District 12 served to keep the people in the town. He had made an attempt to land on one of the support posts but the tiny hairs on his wings picked up a deadly electric field. As he approached, the feeling of_ 'hair standing on end' _drove him away from the fence.

Thread walked behind Azula. "We haven't yet come up with a method of disabling your flight that wouldn't kill you. The Capitol wants you intact and so far that has kept my hands tied." He brushed Azula's fine wings with his hand. He felt the fine hairs and enjoyed Azula's discomfort. "What a wonder of genetic engineering! Imagine what a creature like you could do if it had a mind loyal to Panem."

Azula unfurled her wings and shook them. Thread stood clear: while cruel, he wasn't stupid. He had seen Karo lift himself off the ground. He had done the mental calculus and realized Karo and Azula were a threat devoutly to be avoided: the same power that lifted Karo into the air that afternoon had the potential to break bones.

"I spoke with Peeta." Thread walked toward Karo. "He'll certainly keep an eye on you in the future if he takes you out shopping."

Karo stretched his wings. They looked like butterfly wings but they kicked up the air and spilled papers off the desk onto the floor.

Thread had to decide for himself if this constituted an act of defiance.

Thread and his Peacekeepers had a network of closed circuit cameras around the town, in the mines and on the electric fence. He watched a tape of Azula's excursion last evening. At around midnight, she braved the cold and took off down the paved road of Victor's Village. The night vision cameras captured details scientists in the Capitol would find most interesting. Azula took off by running down the street until a powerful jump allowed her flapping wings to grab the air. The takeoff lacked grace but once firmly supported by lift, Azula flew with great skill.

Thread decided to let any minor infractions slide. He could learn more for The Capitol by watching her and her odd friend. She wasn't stealthy and flight carried a huge metabolic cost since she began to warm up as she flew and gained altitude. The Peacekeepers with their night vision glasses could pick her up as a large thermal mass in the air.

She had great agility. She flew low through the town square and evaded the unlit trees. Thread had no idea why she liked doing this sort of thing but she made several low strafes of the square. He had to admire any creature able to fly in darkness through trees and along streets and avoid being tangled in branches or power lines. She could hover for a few moments as she did when nearing the electric fence or when she floated down to the ground or on a post to land. She always _backed_ off. Even hundreds of meters above it, she never crossed over it.

Karo flew around the town just like Azula. The little _bats_ showed very similar agility but hated the electric fence. Thread watched several of their flights and both of them avoided the fence. Such practical knowledge helped make his reports vital and interesting reading.

_'What made the electric fence so unnerving?' _Thread thought to himself. Scientists in the Capitol could work that out. They had done genetic engineering and had the knowledge of animal behavior. Azula and Karo could clear it by a huge margin but they hated being anywhere above it. Somehow they disliked the field or could see the wilderness beyond it and feared becoming prey. One interesting piece of night camera footage revealed Azula flying along it as if 'sniffing it out' but she flew as if guided: she kept the exact same distance from it at all times. The exact figure didn't matter to Thread but it showed him the little robots could sense the fence.

He found he had little need to contain them. If he kept the electric fence on all the time, they would stay inside of it. If they defied the fence; they didn't fly fast nor could they fly far without rest. He didn't think they posed much of a threat.

* * *

He hoped to gain influence among the commanders at the Capitol. He had pacified District 12 – the home of _Katniss Everdeen_ and now he had the two cyborgs from the _outside_. He decided to make detailed reports and collect all the information he could until The Capitol decided if the diplomatic threats were worth the price of keeping them.

Azula came in low as she prepared to land. The problem with the street in Victor Village came down to Haymitch. From time to time, he lay in the street drunk and paralytic. She needed to have some space to land – a street could do provided it had no obstacles – but once she had made the commitment to land; she had to land lest the ground come up to greet her. The winds had begun to gust and as she slowed down she had to constantly keep reworking her descent. She made it look easy but her light frame hanging in midair meant she was like a helicopter more than any bird and she had no friction to keep her in place. Winds could force her to hit the street with bone jarring shock or send her tumbling into the snow. At about a meter, she could begin moving forward and this allowed her to slowly land and hit the ground at a walking pace. The snow stung her face as she stirred it up and her feet hit the ground and took her weight: she faced the front door of their house and wondered why Haymitch wasn't playing his role as the human speed bump.

The Everdeen family heard a hideous hiss at high volume.

"Why the Hell are you here?" Azula screamed. Her voice made Prim jump because hadn't heard it that loud before.

"What?" Haymitch sounded barely aware of the near call with death.

"I have this idea that no one sleeps in the street during a storm." Azula hissed again.

Katniss went outside. She had seen the outsiders and wondered at their beauty but also had no idea if they could kill.

Azula hissed at Haymitch and began to herd him. Katniss found this amusing and had hoped to see it play out. A little girl had her wings spread out and hissed and Haymitch, her mentor retreated.

Prim went to Azula.

"Can you calm down?" Prim said as she approached.

Azula looked at Prim in an unblinking stare. "Yes...but why was he in the street?"

Prim and Azula walked in circles around each other. Katniss had no idea what this meant.

"I can calm down." Azula said softly.

Haymitch retreated into his house. He closed and audibly bolted the door.

"I'm Prim and my sister is Katniss." Prim had somehow understood Azula.

"I'm Azula and my friend is Karo." Azula looked at Prim. "No doubt you heard of him from Peeta?"

"Welcome Aboard the Satellite of Love." Azula told the two teenage girls standing at the front door. _"Robot Roll Call!" _

The two girls looked on confused.

"Karo thought he'd try to bake bread and he's in the kitchen." Azula explained. "We don't have a sense of smell."

"We came over to check on you two." The girl had a single long braid in her hair but by District standards looked far too free of fungal infections to be a citizen. "Peeta asked me to since he's working at the shop."

"We're fine." Karo yelled from the kitchen.

"I'm not used to this, most people recognize me from last years Hunger Games – I'm Katniss Everdeen. You met my sister Prim." She looked down at Azula but tried to avoid looking intimidating. "Haven't you seen the reruns on television?"

"I watched your state broadcaster once and the violence revolted me," Azula invited Katniss and Prim to come in out of the cold. "In my home country, we have a state television network, but no one watches it and each few months they run telethons to raise money for more programming. They run _Dora the Explorer_ reruns at four in the morning for no reason I could fathom."

Peeta had warned Katniss the newcomers had a chatty nature. He found both of them pleasant but he worried about their care. She wasn't chatty and given her last year, had become even more withdrawn and emotionally damaged.

"I've seen you two flying at night." Katniss sat down in the love seat in the living room.

Karo entered the room with an apron on. "Hello?"

"Katniss Everdeen and my sister Prim." She answered politely. "I live in the house across the street in _Victor's Village._"

Karo stretched his wings. Prim found this a spectacle and rushed up to touch them. Karo's wings had fine hair and were slightly translucent and she could see a tracery of veins and a set of well spaced thin spurs to give it structural strength. The wing looked biological and resembled a monarch butterfly wing but with a three meter span. Most locals had seen their wings; they had wished to see them up close but Thread disapproved.

Prim walked over to Karo. "You're shorter than me."

"It lets me fly." Karo spread his wings in pride.

Prim had the same color hair in the same braid as her sister and wore a blue checked gingham dress. Her wide blue eyes and open hands gently touched the edge of Karo's wing.

"It feels warm!"

Karo couldn't blush very well and yet Katniss could see his inability to deal with Prim carefully touching his wing. He showed no pain but he looked like a medical patient undergoing an intimate procedure. He retained his calm and kind composure.

"You should leave the poor guy alone." Katniss advised.

The wing felt warm and had a coating of short dense fur. Prim hard a hard time taking her hand away.

Katniss had a cold feeling in the pit of her stomach: the Capitol coveted the technology used to make these creatures. Karo and Azula weren't 'mutts'; they were fully fledged individuals. Katniss lacked Prim's naive acceptance of these little people as living breathing people. Azula and Karo had a certain kindness but they could be cleverly programmed machines designed to relate to humans. If they were simple machines, they behaved as if they had humor, Karo's show of discomfort when Prim touched his wing didn't appear to be the reaction of a machine. That made her feel even worse. If the were 'artificial' as rumored in the town and they had a conscience; they would suffer greatly as scientists tore them apart.

"You have gotten quiet all of the sudden." Azula stood in front of Katniss with a tray of tea.

Prim walked around Karo and acted as if he certainly was a living thing. She stared into his eyes and walked around the opposite direction. Both of them said nothing.

"Our scientists want to keep you." Katniss nodded. "I imagine Thread is waiting for orders to put you on a sealed train and send you off to the Capitol."

Azula clasped her hands.

"Thread has his good points...I can't think of any right now." Azula said in an acerbic manner that caught Katniss off guard.

Katniss had terror baked into her bones by the long reach of Panem. If Panem didn't outright kill in their games; she had seen people shot for trivial offenses and the dainty fairy in front of her had spoken of their possible fate without emotion. The casual way Azula poked fun at the Peacemakers, toyed with Thread and held Panem in unhealthy contempt surprised her.

"You look at me like I should feel something." Azula fidgeted. "I wouldn't know how."

Prim lifted up Karo on her shoulders. Katniss found this very odd as he closed his wings and let her lift him by his waist as if to help her. Prim had an ability to earn trust in these odd creatures.

"How can you be so _light_?" She gleefully asked as she placed him back on the ground.

"We're made for flight." Karo smiled back as he straightened himself up. "Pilots worked best if they are lightweight and understand flight instinctively."

Prim found this explanation good enough and decided to investigate Azula.

"Yes?" Azula looked at Prim.

Prim lifted her off the ground.

Katniss had nothing but admiration for the kind and dignified way Azula responded to having her dainty frame lifted up off the ground.

"You must be part bird!" Prim held up Azula by her legs.

Prim had a deep fondness for living things and here she had a chance to see something all together new in Karo and Azula. This conviced Katniss, they were alive and thinking beings.

Azula looked down. "Everyone is a little different."

Azula stayed perfectly balanced and moved as Prim's unsteady grip held her by her legs. Prim felt much like she had a bird in her hands.

Katniss watched Prim as she played at falconer with Azula. Azula looked quite fascinated as Prim gently moved her around in a circle. The little girl with the gray blue eyes and the little pilot with the hawk like amber eyes studied each other and Katniss found it difficult to believe Azula was a mindless machine.

"Prim!" Katniss spoke out. "You should put the young lady down."

"I'm fine." Azula spoke with her usual candor.

Prim watched as Azula's eyes watched her. Azula didn't blink but her ears twitched back and forth locking into sounds in the distance like a cat.

Azula spread out her wings and stirred the air gently. Prim felt the power driving them and saw the parts of her wing make intricate adjustments. She gasped in surprise when she realized how much power Azula and Karo had in their wings and it took all her strength to keep herself planted on the ground.

Katniss could sense the power as air ruffled her hair. Azula looked dainty, Karo looked harmless but she imagined one well aimed blow with those wings and she'd have a shattered skull.

Prim placed Azula back on the ground but had a broad smile on her face.

* * *

Thread had little enough knowledge about science, given the Peacekeepers trained not as law enforcement or as professional military but as bullies.

He had sent the air craft to the them piece by piece so any satellites from the outside would find no trace of it.

He had a request from The Capitol and its scientists. In this context, that meant President Snow.

They hadn't yet sent for the two pilots but they had questions about how they could actually fly. They had wings capable of generating enough lift and thrust to allow for flight but the scientists saw the pictures of the pilots, read Threads reports and viewed the night vision camera shots of their flights.

They had calculated many things about their flight characteristics. None of which made much sense to Thread but mattered because they raised more questions. The heat signature suggested Karo and Azula each could generate the power of a four horsepower motor – or five thousand watts on takeoff! This gave off a good deal of heat and the ability to see them at night came from the way the wings acted to wick away this heat and keep the body uncooked. This was anatomically impossible for mammals – in fact deadly as such raw muscular power would crush the chest.

They sent Thread an unnerving small silver box about the size of a snap shot camera with disturbing warnings about X – Ray radiation in red unfriendly letters. The camera included a mounting bracket and an assuring notice that the actual X – Ray radiation produced would never exceed that of a chest X – Ray. Thread had little faith in Panem medical science but orders had to be obeyed.

Thread had his two guards install it according to instructions.

He should have asked Prim or Katniss. Prim had a kind of intuitive biology and she became friends with Azula and Karo. They taught her songs and flew for her and tried as best they could to make her life more bearable. Katniss understood animal anatomy from hunting and had figured out the _'Fairy Folk' _as Prim called them had a large keel protecting the chest and lings and locking the breastbone and spine into one strong unit like any bird.

Both of them understood that compared to a mockingjay, Karo and Azula weren't miracles of flight. In flight, they moved as naturally as any bird and had fun performing acrobatics. Landing or taking off for the meter tall pilots was not very pretty. They had to take a run at it in order to take off and flap hard. Katniss came to call this 'kite launching'. Once flying, they had a half hour at the most before they grew tired and came back. They had several methods of landing. The _'screw it and hit something soft'_ method, was Karo's favorite. He lined up with a snowbank and flew into it raising a cloud of snow into the air. Azula had perfected the _'where the Hell did Haymitch __o__r__ the cat__ come from'_ method where she came in far to fast or Haymitch came out of his house and they narrowly missed and Azula had to struggle to keep her feet under her and slide into the snow. They could pull off a perfect but not pretty landing where they hit the ground running and then slowed or slid to a stop. Katniss realized they were never designed to land on the ground: this made sense as pilots usually had to bail over forests, isolated areas without clear uncluttered ground. They had no problem landing on roofs or posts.

Thread lacked Prim's appreciation for the oddball Karo and Azula.

He looked out his window and jerked back as Azula came in on a steep glide path heading toward his large gust from the winds off her wings rattled the hardened bulletproof glass._'They seek to irritate me'_ he thought as he wondered if he should dive under his desk.

A cloud of snow roiled up and Azula was gone.

"I wish those fools in the..." Thread cut himself off.

Azula reappeared and came down on a nice glide and hit the ground hard with her feet, closed her wings and slid for a few meters on sheer inertia.

He had called her for a meeting.

Two Peacekeepers ran toward Azula as she gained her footing. Thread watched. They handled her with much hesitation. The Capitol had made it clear these two were to be unharmed and left alone as far as order in District 12 permitted. Azula shook her head and they backed off.

The two guards at the door opened the double doors of the office a few moments later and Azula looking as prim and proper as ever walked in.

"I don't approve of you flying openly in the mid morning." Thread stood up from his desk.

Thread found himself staring eye to eye with Azula.

"You do realize my pilot uniform is made of heat resistant materials. My vest is radiation resistant – pilots have more exposure to radiation than people on the ground." Azula wore an angry look in her eyes.

"How did you know?" Thread held the anxiety in his voice down.

"You told me," Azula moved back, "just now."

Thread decided to have Azula hung_ if _he had the chance.

"You can enjoy your petty humiliation for now." Thread bared his teeth.

"Panem's leaders should ask what will come next?" Azula brusquely rebuffed Thread. "Some people have a good many questions about what has happened to that plane and its crew. We rely on air transport and we do not like these mysteries unanswered." Azula wagged her finger. "We have had a full quarter of a century of safe aviation and important people will want to know answers to many urgent questions."

"The plane is gone. You can't contact your people and Panem is vast." Thread had to control his temper. He opened his hands. "How will they search for you? We have a radio jamming system over all of Panem so you can't send messages."

"All very true." Azula relaxed and put her feet up on Thread's desk. "We have some very large eyes watching you. You have nuclear weapons and we watch them very closely."

"I do as I'm told as I'm loyal to Panem." Thread shoved Azula's feet off his desk. "I try to be polite but you have tried my patience."

I suppose you can't tell me anything about how you work?" Thread looked over the desk at Karo as Karo fixated on the camera in the corner. "Can you tell me how you knew we had a camera in that corner?" Thread asked condescendingly. "Did your mate tell you?"

"I've been in District 12 long enough to know that no one can afford a smoke detector."

Thread hated this kind of bland logic embedded in Karo and Azula. Azula made him look stupid by her vast knowledge of mind games. Karo made him look stupid because as a pilot, he had a mind for little details.

Karo held up his hand to the blinking red light in the middle of the white plastic disc mounted on the ceiling in the corner of the room.

"There's nothing about me you couldn't find documented publicly." Karo moved his hand delicately. "The anatomy of my hand and wrist are the same as any human."

"I don't have a library card." Thread leaned over as Karo moved his hand. "You may have a human hand but you can fly."

Karo looked at his hand.

"I can fly." Karo said proudly. "How do_ your _people think we work?"

"I run security." Thread said in a tired voice. "Making an android isn't part of my job."

"The X – Ray camera will reveal nothing." Karo reminded Thread.

"I know, your clothing is opaque to X – Rays."

"Even if I take off my vest, you'll see nothing." Karo offered. "Our bones have cells that produce a kind of carbon composite which your camera won't make out. You can call it 'plastic' and its strong but light." Karo unfurled his wings. "We have two keels to keep our ribcage from collapsing. You should take notes."

"You forget I can make the lives of your friends Katniss and Prim quite unpleasant." Thread broke out. "You like playing with Prim don't you?"

Karo wore a thoughtful look for many moments.

"I take that as a threat?" Karo came back with his reply. "You can't threaten a machine. I suppose you can yell at your car when it stalls in the middle of nowhere on a cold night but it seldom responds. I'm a machine and don't understand threats. If I did, then anyone with a knife and a tropical island destination could make me do their bidding."

* * *

Prim and Peeta knocked on the door of the _Fairy House_ as they called it.

"Come in." Azula's voice responded to their knock.

Karo sat on the large recliner as Azula stood over him with one of their tablet computers. In one corner, the television lay in pieces: the LCD panel sat propped up by books, the plastic case was off to the side and they had taken the electronics to bits.

"If you are trying to make me telepathic, remember all the rats went mad." Karo nodded to Peeta and Prim. "Hello. If this works, and she doesn't static me again! We can play movies stored in my brain."

"If I see that git Snow on the television; I'm going to run us both through with a loaf of sharpened bread." Azula smiled at Prim who had a jar of goat's milk and at Peeta who looked uncomfortable with a basket of bread. No one spoke out against President Snow except in hushed voices.

"Lately I've wanted to staple a list of my ninety five objections to his ideology on his forehead." Karo said as he sat back and Azula tended to him. Peeta and Prim had discovered much of their humor consisted of private jokes and as denizens of District 12, they had lost all connection with history and the popular culture of the world at large.

Azula and Azula had spare time and used their ability to steal small bits from the mines and everywhere else and cobble them together to invent things. They had a windmill in the back yard generating electricity. They had managed to cut a large steel barrel in half and attach a kind of alternator to it. They had scientific knowledge beyond anyone in District 12. They had gained a reputation in hushed corners for being clever with gadgets. Since they could fly, they could make off with small items. They never stole from the locals but the Peacekeepers,, the mine and the Justice Hall had a rash of thefts.

"I have too much free time on my hands." Azula explained as she waved the computer in the air. "We hate Panem television so we ripped out the part that picks up signals from Panen and left the display intact. We want to use it for our own purposes."

"Should we charge for movies?" Karo sounded helpless.

"I think I'm just about done..." Azula punched in data in her tablet. A loin's face appeared on the remains of the television. Azula noted with satisfaction as the device indicated it had interfaced with Karo's hard drive and begun to stream from it. The picture shifted to a series of blotchy images – Azula knew it had worked but some tuning was needed.

* * *

"I came on account of your cat." Azula addressed Katniss at her front door. "You have an orange one that's deranged?"

"Buttercup?"

"I don't know it on a first name basis..." Azula looked at her nails. "This cat has set up shop in what we call the garage – joke's on us because we don't have a car. Each time I approach it; it becomes all hissing teeth and claws."

"I'll send Prim over...it's her cat." Katniss watched little Azula peek around her. "Anything else?"

Karo bolted over the hedge between the two houses.

"That cat has taken over the kitchen." Karo huffed in the cold. "I bravely fought a defensive action with a corn broom and the cat ate it. We have Satan's cat; I swear it."

"I'll get my cat." Prim trotted past Karo and Azula.

"I think you need a few marines." Karo advised. "So Buttercup is its name? I had put my best guess on the eternal feline spawn from the Fifth Ring of Hell. You owe us a broom."

"I know." Katniss looked outside bored.

Karo felt around his vest.

"Who fixes the windows around here." Karo brushed glass out of his vest and hair. "When Pumpkin took over the kitchen, I bailed by jumping out of the window. As my head smashed through the glass, I saw the metal thing that would have opened it."

Karo began to feel prim and proper again. Katniss had developed a healthy respect for Karo's delicate sense of humor but he was oblique at times. She had seen him crashed and began to develop a healthy respect for how tough his bones had to be to take such a beating.

"Buttercup says hi!" Prim came back with the orange cat and it hissed at the pair.

Azula kept a healthy distance between her and the cat. "Did he finish eating the kitchen stove?"

That cat had earned the animosity of Azula and Karo. The cat not only had a horrible attitude but an evil mind and had made Karo run for his life in an ambush attack.

"Do you want to come in?" Prim offered. Katniss was socially tone deaf but Prim could tell the duo was growing cold. "We can have some tea." She said cheerfully.

* * *

"I suppose you two want to know why I called you here?" Thread nodded and the two Peacekeepers let go of Karo and Azula's arm. Thread turned in his large imposing chair and slid an envelope across the desk. "Your government has requested we give this letter to you and have you sign it."

Azula picked up the letter and looked at it carefully.

"I didn't know the Foreign Office took an interest." Azula examined the return address on the beige envelope. She opened it and began reading as she handed the envelope off to Karo.

"They want both of you to give your fingerprint as verification you're alive and in good health." Thread explained.

"Why did you arrest us?" Karo peered over Azula's shoulder. The letter had two boxes with their names below it on the signature line. The boxes had a chemical treatment that recorded fingerprints and a kind of coating to capture skin cells. This precaution made it difficult to tamper with or forge official documents.

"I phoned you and you didn't answer." Thread watched as Azula pressed her thumb on the letter. Thread had orders to see they got the letter but all his attempts to read it failed; as it was in polite Japanese. "In short,_ I_ _can_ have you arrested."

Karo stepped forward and pressed his thumb down. Thread could see nothing but a color change from white to gray inside the box that verified the print had been captured.

"Our phone is a museum piece." Azula pushed the letter and envelope toward Thread's waiting hand. "We own an _Alexander Graham Bell original_: a black rotary dial phone. If we ever leave this Godforsaken place; I might put it up for auction and make a packet. Until then, we want to preserve it's value and we don't use it."

"I expect to be obeyed." Thread slipped the letter in the envelope after briefly looking at it. "If I fail to inspire fear, then I can't do my job and keep these people in line. We have a hardworking, peaceful community and my duty is to see it remains _a peaceful community_."

"I appreciate the veiled threat." Azula had her hands on his desk. "Shut up and mind your place as guests of Panem."

"Yes." Thread admired and hated the ability of Azula to make every statement an unyielding act of defiance. He could see the defiance in her eyes but remained helpless to deal with it in the usual manner of torment and torture. He had his orders and he didn't dare go against them. Azula would continue rebelling in her way; complaining about everything like an indignant hen. Karo would go about his life quietly with his hatred of Thread suppressed. They didn't interact with the community so Thread could afford to let it slide.

* * *

Azula and Karo came home and saw the scary looking black sedan Thread used for patrols in the town.

"It's a beautiful life." Azula stepped up the front porch. "If we're lucky; the _Satan Cat_ has cornered them."

"They'd shoot it." Karo pushed the door open. "Hello?"

"We have noted your television is not functioning." A tall man with bristly dark brown hair spoke sternly. "President Snow addresses the nation tonight and it's obligatory viewing."

"Advanced Public Broadcasters now use terror to extort cash out of the viewing public. For your two hundred dollar donation, you will get the four plate commemorative plates of President Snow! Our operators are debiting your account _now!_" Azula eyed the guard. "We don't need a television and you've taken quite a liberty by entering our home."

"You do know it is an offense to tamper with televisions?" The man leaned forward to eye back at Azula. "We _could _have you both whipped publicly."

"Obligatory as in I have to sit on the couch while I age and listen to him lie?" Karo meekly spoke as he examined the broken bolt and the shattered wood where the deadbolt had once held the door closed. "You said we could be whipped publicly – that sounds very unpleasant. I wasn't entirely clear on whether I could take the whipping over the viewing of President Snow? I've never been whipped before – I've viewed President Snow. I wonder what latitude of choice I have."

The second man approached Karo in an obvious attempt to intimidate him. Karo saw him lean over him with a stern look in his beady brown eyes and a bald head shaved clean. Karo wasn't stupid. He could see the man thinking of ways to hurt him. Karo didn't have to blink as his eyes were artificial so he bet on winning the staring contest.

"Boys!" Azula cleared her throat. "Put in the television and leave!"

Thread had made it quite clear Snow's new pets _were_ not to be harmed. The man blinked and his eyes hurt and he wasn't mentally up to the task of intimidating these two. Thread had tried and failed because either these two had no ability to understand intimidation and threats or – much more likely – their engineers had made it impossible for them to respond to intimidation or threats. A hijacker might conclude it unprofitable to deal with pilots who couldn't bend to intimidation.

"Are you going to fix the window too?" Karo asked in a low voice.

* * *

"I suppose I should teach you _'Your awful cat is in my basement'_ in Japanese to add variety toyour lives." Azula walked past Katniss. "I sent Karo down there with a storm lantern and a broom. We may have need of a Shinto priest."

Katniss hated the cat and Azula hadn't earned her affection today.

"Leave him alone and he'll find his way home. He always does." Azula followed Katniss into the kitchen where Prim and her mother tended to a victim of one of Thread's whipping. "You can excuse me if we don't care. The patients haven't stopped coming and we've begun to run out of medical supplies. The cat can wait."

"I will admit I have no way of dealing with the misery and squalor I see each day." Azula looked at the middle aged man's back which was lacerated with deep cuts. The long dim shadows of the lanterns in the kitchen made it even more awful. "I don't have the programming for dealing with this sort of thing."

"I think you should take her home and get the cat." Katniss's mother said gently.

"I'm fine...I had no idea you had company." Azula stood up and brushed off her uniform.

Azula walked out of the kitchen.

"I hate your cat." Azula told Katniss as she opened the door. It had begun to snow lightly and a wind had begun to come out of the north.

"I'll walk you home." Katniss offered. "Since you're some kind of _'artificial person'_ and you don't have real emotions."

"What do you want from me?" Azula walked down the short driveway. "I have no idea if I feel real emotions or a set of binary commands."

"For a robot, you spend an awful lot of time in your head." Katniss followed Azula to the front door.

Azula opened the door. "Please fetch your cat."

Katniss had learned how to read people. Azula was completely alien in thoughts and deeds: she was a strange hybrid of many things biology, genetics and technology but incomplete. Karo and Azula had a painful time telling people apart; had no sense of smell or taste and Katniss always wondered if they had any kind of emotional life.

Karo looked like he had his feathers ruffled as he sat on the loveseat and propped his feet up on the coffee table.

"The cat is in the basement." Karo said nervously. "I consider my retreat upstairs a kind of defeat. The lantern is in the kitchen if you need it."

Katniss didn't need instructions to find the crawlspace. Azula called it a basement but Azula was much shorter and saw the space _'differently'_.

"I need you and those eyes." Katniss had seen Karo and Azula at night and unlike her, they had splendid night vision. Their owners flew at night and she never understood if they did this because they felt safe or_ if _they were night creatures. They didn't sleep or if they did, they didn't need to sleep regularly and when they had good weather; they both flew over District 12 in utter darkness. "I've seen you track a mouse at a thousand feet so don't plead weakness."

Azula followed behind Katniss and said nothing.

Katniss hit the bottom of the stairs and noticed Azula's pretty amber eyes had grown wide and a dim greenish gray glow shone out of them. She'd heard rumors of their keen senses at night: some thought they might have bat ultrasound. Some speculated on owl like night vision, while some thought they had a kind of radar.

Azula and Karo weren't telling.

"The cat is gone." Azula paced around the crawl space anxiously tapping her feet on the concrete in an effort to scare the cat out from behind a row of neatly stacked rubber tubs. "You have something to say?"

"I don't think you realize how much danger you're facing."

Azula pulled the green plastic lid off one of the clear tubs.

"Will that information somehow prepare me to face it?" Azula rooted around and held up a small black stick like device as if she had found a treasure. "I place our odds at less than twenty five percent. Even if Karo and I come out of this alive; we won't be first rate. Humans are lucky. They can forget or get drunk. We can't do that." Azula held up the black stick. "Karo has been wondering where his music player had gotten to."

Azula continued to root in the bin as she held the black music player in her hand.

"I wish I had your calm attitude." Katniss sat on the bottom step. "President Snow wants to dissect you. Prim's grown rather fond of both of you and hates that thought."

"I hate_ that _idea." Azula walked toward Katniss. Azula paused for a moment as she processed the idea. Katniss and Azula had never really liked each other but if Katniss intended to make Azula think about her actions; that statement showed a full understanding of her nature – she couldn't harm or cause to harm another human being.

Katniss had wanted Azula to realize the danger of her situation. Karo and Azula had proven harmless; quite charming little people that never fit in well with others. Katniss never quite worked out if Azula and Karo were designed to be appealing or if they simply had a kind outlook.

* * *

Another black car drove along the wide drive of _Victor's Village_. The black car stood out against the white newly fallen snow because coal dust had not yet had time to turn the white snow into gray muck.

Azula had gone out flying in the middle of a moderately severe snowstorm after informing Karo that _'white was a color that could be found in District 12 and she had decided to find it'_. Karo disliked the idea and protested that conditions limited visibility but Azula ignored him.

She descended in order to make yet another clumsy landing on the paved drive. Since no one sanded or salted the streets; Azula relied on them being unused to prevent colliding with anything solid or not cushioned with snow. She had icing problems and so she found herself falling and flapping and and hissing and screaming as she fell out of the sky.

"Get the Hell out of my way!" She screamed as soon as she saw the car parked outside of the unused house beside the one her and Karo used.

"Crap!" She narrowly missed clipping the overhead power lines. They never were live in the afternoon and she had hoped to use the heavy aluminum wires to stop herself. She went into a spinning turn, hissing all the way as she flew into the top of a pine tree Haymitch had never had properly trimmed back and hung there gripping the tree trunk.

A slender man with a mustache and unkempt white hair walked toward her as she hissed and hung onto the tree. She had expected Haymitch to come stumbling out and complaining but he must have lapsed into a drunken stupor that made him deaf to the sound of her hissing and breaking a tree.

"What in the phrase_ 'get the Hell out of my way' _didn't you understand?'" Azula looked own at the man in his gray suit and gray wind breaker. "Why do you get a car and we don't is another question." Azula examined the ground and tried to work out how to fall with dignity as she saw Karo come rushing out. "Who the Hell are you anyway is a third question."

I'm Doctor Therius. I work with President Snow as a cyberneticist." He explained. "Are you alright?"

"I see – I thought Snow needed a puppet wrangler." Azula expected another lecture from Karo on taking care and from Thread on guarding her political opinions.

Azula didn't weigh all that much so she jumped back and fell the three meters out of the tree into the snow and hoped for the best. In her mind, the best was that the neighbor cat hadn't left any surprises. A cloud of snow flew up and Azula emerged and brushed the snow off herself.

I came to study you." Therius admitted as he walked toward Karo. "You two are the first time we've seen cyborgs from the outside world."

The sound of Azula hissing had become part of the soundtrack of _Victor's Village_. Karo never hissed but he didn't take on as many risks on landing and proved rather timid. Azula had come in at high speed swearing and hissing all of the time and Katniss suspected this a kind of expression of anger or frustration at things. Most of the time, her demonic hiss came out when she argued with the cat. She appeared at their door shortly after the hissing died down.

The sound of Azula's hiss had a distinct sound of fear and a loud crunch followed so Prim and Katniss decided to take a look.

"Are you okay!?" Prim asked with concern as she rushed to an Azula who almost mouthed the words: _'you didn't see that'_.


	2. Chapter 2

**Tales of the Ghosts in the Future**

**Chapter 2: The New Pilgrims**

Therius had orders but no advice on carrying them out.

Thread had large files on Karo and Azula but they contained few useful observations. They had an innate curiosity. Karo had a quiet and meek personality while Azula was rebellious, cantankerous and openly condemned the regime. The incident reports revealed they had a sophisticated knowledge of technology as they had dismantled the television and built a wind generator from parts stolen from the railroad and mine but he had no idea how they had done this. Theft was death but he had orders to leave them alone. He reported their trips around the district at night in the absence of almost any source of light to Therius: this implied a radar or night vision system. Thread had noted they were very intelligent and clever but Thread wasn't concerned about science so he was of little help.

Therius had seen the girl crash into a tree at a good clip on the previous day and emerge unharmed. She landed in a large tree when she had the crash and jumped out of it three meters to the ground unhurt - this implied a very strong skeleton. As creatures designed for flight; this made sense. He realized the full size of the problem he faced: he could figure out much of their physical makeup but no one in Panem had any experience with autonomous artificial intelligences or cyborgs or _artificial humans_ as they called themselves. He had designed countless artificial body parts for cosmetic and medical reasons but never gave any thought to actually building a mind.

He had set up a camera on a sturdy tripod outside.

He began a simple experiment. He suspected Karo and Azula had powerful microwave systems and he placed a transmitter on the side of the house facing theirs. He had the ability to program it in various ways including patterns mimicking airport and airplane beacons. He didn't think he could fool them but if they could pick up anything in the microwave band; they might be curious to have a look.

He turned it on and waited.

Azula came out within seconds and she looked around. Her ears twitched.

Karo came around the back and they both homed in on Therius's house. They noticed the camera as it panned but what he saw confirmed a keen microwave sense. They found the transmitter and both of them circled it in one direction than another. In a few seconds, Therius noticed they had begun to answer it. A set of chirps came through the speaker on his tablet and translated them into bird like calls for his human ears. They matched the power and frequency perfectly and Therius wondered if they wished for an answer. He had a record of the chirping. District 12 lacked any sort of microwave equipment and so no one could have picked up on _this_ kind of signal. Snow wanted a weapon but Therius had remained enough of a scientist in his seventy plus years to find this discovery thrilling.

Azula walked around the front of the house and knocked on the door.

Therius held his tablet as he rushed to answer the door.

"Are they finally coming to take us away?" Azula asked sullenly. "You set up a beacon for aircraft."

"I wanted to see if you could sense it." Therius half apologized. "I see you can."

Azula looked almost annoyed.

* * *

Karo had a cherub like demeanor and sat patiently on Therius's living room loveseat as Therius examined him like a medical patient. He had a heart beat, almost the same body temperature as a human and inch long fangs.

The fangs made him treat Karo with a great deal more care.

_"Why do you have fangs?" _

He looked into Karo's mouth and had his fangs resting against a pencil to double check that he had seen the inch long metal fangs.

"In the event of a hijacking, they allow us to defend ourselves." Karo felt his teeth drying out. "A gun or large blade is dangerous because it could damage the plane. Fangs are small and easily hidden."

Therius gently took the pencil away and the fangs retracted into the upper jaw.

Therius wondered how reluctant the girl might be when it came to using those fangs. He had asked Karo to help him and while he was reluctant; Therius told him that he wasn't going to do anything invasive or _more important to the meek Karo_; force him to undress.

Karo had eyes made out of delicate, perfectly fit Asian parts. Therius shone a penlight into his pupil and the iris didn't change. The white of the eye and part in humans called the cornea in Karo had no function except to protect the delicate assembly of lenses and digital camera sensors which allowed Karo to not only focus but enjoy a full zoom and macro system.

"Do you mind if I test your eyes?" Therius asked Karo.

"I've never had an eye test." Karo admitted. "I guess so."

Therius picked up his tablet computer and a display of letters appeared as he held it up and stood in the middle of the living room. Karo didn't have spectacular vision. He had good stereoscopic vision. Without the addition of zoom or macro functions, Karo had slightly below normal vision compared to humans. He had poorer contrast and color perception in the daytime than a human his age – hardly the vision for a military super robot spy.

"I think that's enough for today." Therius told Karo kindly. "You've been very patient."

"Very well." Karo stood up and bowed. "Shall I ask Azula to visit you?"

"No..." Therius shook his head. "We're finished for the day.

* * *

Snow wanted weapons he could deploy against his internal enemies and a robot looked like a perfect Peacekeeper. These two didn't offer a technological solution to his political problems. They weren't designed as killing machines. Snow had an unpleasant habit of making those who disappointed him suffer.

The odd hovercraft flying over the district proved only mildly amusing. Azula and Karo flew up to have a look as they flew over the district but the machines were slow and not at all interesting: they always flew a course either to the east or to the west and most of them had an optical cloak designed to fool human eyes but it couldn't fool radar or hide from night vision.

Karo walked with Peeta on his way home from the town square on a cold clear morning. Peeta knew Karo had picked up something moving in the air when Karo stood still, circled and then stood in the road and faced the in a certain direction. Karo had his built in radar and it could see mice moving under the snow or pick up cloaked hovercraft but his engineers had omitted the sense of smell and so he couldn't tell if bread was burned. Peeta couldn't see the hovercraft but Karo described the craft and their heading with complete accuracy.

The hovercraft became visible as it sank toward the town square.

"Does that happen often?" Karo asked and pointed in the direction of the Justice Hall.

Peeta shook his head. "It never happened before."

"In this place, that can only be an ill omen." Karo watched the hovercraft descend below the line of buildings. "May make for an exciting morning."

Karo meant this is as a kind of dark joke.

Azula meant to figure out what was taking place. Peeta could see her winging her way toward the Justice Hall. She banked at a steep angle and flew toward Karo. Peeta shaded his face as her wings kicked up a cloud of cold snow.

"We have visitors." Azula spoke grimly because the last visitors to this lonely place had brought Romulus Thread and many more of his Peacekeepers. She had picked up the hovercraft some distance away and her insatiable curiosity had drawn her out. Even as the town grew quiet and those not working in the mine closed their doors for fear of an even greater tyrant; Azula and Karo couldn't resist a chance to see someone new. "I hope they'll take my complaints: I have many."

"You can't do that." Peeta whispered. "I know you two are unhappy prisoners here but we should leave." Peeta placed his hand on Karo's back. "You came here. What you don't understand is how they could punish us for _what_ you do: for _even_ knowing you." He had no idea if Karo or Azula even understood emotional arguments but this was the way Panem operated.

Karo began to turn back.

Azula hissed loudly in anger.

A hovercraft landing in the town square meant bad news in Thread's mind. The gray craft barely fit in the town square. The landing skids touched the ground, a ramp deployed and two Peacekeepers came out followed by a tall man carrying an orb. He had the royal blue suit that almost was the uniform of an important man in Panem but Thread could only guess at the nature of the silver orb.

A round of salutes went between Thread, his guards and_ 'Minister Agricola of The Capitol'_.

He placed the silver orb on the desk on three small legs. It had a red circle and the characters on the side – presumably Asian – had the look of a seal of office. He placed an unopened letter next to it with the seal of Panem and looked at it as if he had no idea what it could contain.

The device began to emit a beam of multiple shimmering colors.

"I _am_ Lord Koichi Sakakibara of the Foreign Office." Thread had never seen a Japanese ambassador but he understood the fashions of the pilots a good deal more. Lord Sakakibara looked regal and had a tall physically fit and strong looking physique. Thread had spent such a long time in District 12, he had forgotten what a fit and healthy person looked like. He had a well trimmed black mustache, a queue of long black hair held by a silk ribbon in a tight waist long braid and he stood two meters tall.

His robes informed Thread immediately of his royal position. The large katana he kept at his side had the finest red lacquer and gold inlay and told Thread this man could not be trifled with. Lord Sakakibara placed his leather gloved hands on his legs and he sat in lotus position. His leather and silk armor made the noise only fine leather made.

"I understand you are holding two of my citizens here in this place." Sakakibara spoke softly, in a low voice with great disapproval and disgust. "I have grave concerns about their safety."

Thread looked to Agricola. Agricola looked as confused as Thread,

"What is this?"

"A Japanese Imperial Destroyer boarded a fishing trawler working of the west coast." Agricola explained although Thread noticed hesitations in the minister's voice as if he lacked crucial details. "They returned the crew with this device and very strict injunctions. You know as much as I do – I have Snow's confidence but they told me very few details. The Japanese programmed it to respond to you and the pilots. You can ask _it_ – the ambassador simple questions if you wish. I have no idea what answers you might obtain."

"I wasn't aware the two pilots were subjects of yours?" Romulus Thread stood up to face this man. He forced calmness into his voice but despite the very intimidating look of the hologram; he was still a recording. "They were made in some place called Japan by a robotics factory."

"The line between human and machine has become greatly blurred in the last centuries." Sakakibara answered enigmatically. "I don't expect someone in your position to understand."

His leather shone in the light of a Japanese garden on a sunny winter day.

"I don't have the proper permissions." Thread pleaded.

"Your representative has all the permissions you need."

He looked very annoyed.

"My English may not be as good as it could be." Sakakibara lied. His English was perfect but cultural concepts from Home didn't translate very well. "I represent the Japanese Empire of which they are citizens and as I am the voice of my Emperor in this matter; they are my subjects as _He_ has placed upon me the duty of protecting them."

Thread looked even more annoyed.

"I could enter into a long debate about these matters but that wastes my time and taxes my patience." Sakakibara bared his teeth.

Thread nodded to his guards at the door.

"Fetch the two pilots!" He barked out as he slammed his desk.

The two pilots entered the room and the moment they stood before Lord Sakakibara; they sat on the floor and bowed. Azula and Karo greeted Sakakibara with a long and from what Thread could judge, very formal manner. He had never heard Japanese in his life and had no clue what the three of them could be saying but the bowing took on great importance. Whoever the tall man was; he was held in high esteem by Azula and Karo.

The perfection of the hologram couldn't explain the deference shown by the two pilots. Thread watched as the hologram of Sakakibara began to move again as if put on pause. The figure changed from the stern ambassador to a white haired middle aged man with green eyes.

"I am _Doctor Kyoshi Itoh_," He explained as he bowed. "I am a senior engineer for _Hyperdine Cybernetic Systems Corporation of Osaka Japan_. I came to retrieve the data recorders from our two pilots." He spoke with an odd accent that Thread could not recognize.

"Data recorders?" Thread looked to the white haired scientist standing next to the case.

"All cyborgs, including myself carry a special chip that records data on various aspects of their performance. I'm not at liberty to say anything more of a technical nature." He stood like a soldier at attention. "This instrument will retrieve all information on them so we can verify your people have treated them well."

Thread had his orders and wondered to himself what kind of leverage could these foreigners have over President Snow.

Agricola crossed his arms. He was the messenger and he had no idea how the orb worked but neither did Snow's researchers. He had seen holograms but as recordings in three dimensions not as a kind of interactive computer interface. He couldn't read any Japanese but a progress bar had appeared in front of an icon of Karo – data was flowing from him into the orb.

The orb had passed over the desks of a half dozen Panem computer expert before Snow assigned him the duty of taking it to District 12. The orb had arrived in Panem with a strict injunction against messing with it in any way and with precise instructions on how to handle it. Snow had his scientists ignore this instruction – he wanted them to take a peek – but they failed. They could find no method of coaxing it to do anything and all their best instruments told them nothing useful. Agricola thought they had passed its care on to him because they wanted to see what it did do when it found Karo and Azula.

The progress bar moved over a picture of Azula. When it had completed the work, the good Doctor Itoh appeared politely before the crowd.

"I have completed the work." Doctor Itoh announced formally. "If you have read the letter from your president; you will note that we have sent goods from Japan to ensure their continued well being. We require that you deliver them to their house. If you have any questions, the shipping crates have manifests in your language and Japanese. We have not included anything contrary to your laws."

Sakakibara appeared and bowed to Karo and Azula and they bowed back. They spoke Japanese for several moments. Doctor Itoh also bowed to them and spoke softly in Japanese and then they both quietly bowed to Thread and turned to leave.

Karo and Azula continued bowing until they heard the hum and rush as the hovercraft took off.

* * *

Karo walked into the bakery in a foul mood. He hissed at everything including the display of cakes set out in the front shop window to lure customers.

Peeta expected this of Azula but Karo was usually quiet and shy.

"They will never let us free!" Karo hissed as he unfolded his wings. "Damn diplomacy; they want to keep Snow _'happy'_ and keep his hand from hitting the nuclear button. Our nation still remembers _Hiroshima and Nagasaki_. Snow made it clear we can't go – we're suspected spies or hitch hikers or whatever trumped up charge you are stupid enough to believe I want to go home but my wishes don't figure into it."

"I know..." Peeta said sadly. "How did Azula take the news?"

"I think she plans on killing and eating Prim's cat." Karo felt Peeta's hand around his shoulder - a gesture humans found comforting.

Azula paced the town square and she wanted to choke a few choice people but decided to buy a cake instead. She found Karo in a bad mood talking with Peeta in the bakery and she looked at the cake selection.

"Do you make cakes for special occasions?" Azula asked Peeta. "I'd hate to throw myself at the electric fence and not have a celebration for my friends. What about a coffin shaped one?"

"You can't be serious." Peeta still lacked an appreciation for Azula's delicate humor. "We'd miss you."

"Killing myself would be giving in." Azula assured Peeta. "I think I would like a set of the throwing pies so I could throw one at Snow and his crew if they ever tour _District 12_." Azula was in a huff: Peeta could see her tiny hands balled in fists. "Of course he has proven a valued client for some of our companies and so his words or threats hold some clout. In any event; we'll be here for some time."

Peeta could see the frustration in the way both of them paced the shop.

"You'd miss us?" Azula paced along the cake display. "The Everdeen girl constantly complains about my lack of tact dealing with their cat. Haymitch has caused me several aborted takeoffs and has said nothing to me. We're not supposed to mix too much with the locals or distract them from their work."

"Katniss hasn't been the same since the _Hunger Games_. I suppose no one ever is. She volunteered so her sister Prim didn't have to go." Peeta resumed his duties and stacked the display of bread loaves behind the counter. "You may be machines but I think you bring that kind of decent innocence to our blighted world."

"Innocence?" Azula queried the grayish eyed boy.

"You've got a certain charming child like way about you. I remember carrying Karo into town." Peeta admitted. "Karo was friendly and odd compared to the people living here, cheerful in spite of his circumstances."

* * *

Peacekeepers worked under the_ 'need to know' _rule and new Peacekeepers didn't need to know much about Azula and Karo. The 'guests' as Thread called them were not to be abused but not all Peacekeepers cared.

Karo went to the bakery for bread daily and he bought the burned or old loaves for his birds.

Karo walked passed the Justice Hall with a wicker basket full of bread. He stumbled and fell spilling his bread in the snow.

Karo had no concept of bullying and he stood up brushing off the snow and trying to work out what caused him to trip. A young man in the uniform of a Peacekeeper shoved him back to the ground.

"Are you supposed to be mixing with the locals?" A menacing voice picked Karo up by his hair pin.

Karo yelped in pain. The hairpin contained a set of delicate antennas and he felt like someone had begun to rip his skull off or scalp him.

"What do you want from me?" Karo began to hiss and would have made a run for it; but the man had lifted him clear of the ground. The man held his left hand in a tight fist. Karo wasn't defenseless and he bit down on the left hand fist of the man as the guard tried to punch him in the head and fell to the ground. The man had not prepared himself for the strength or pain of the bite or the swiftness of the small Karo.

Thread had heard the hissing and thought something had happened to annoy Azula. He went outside and had never seen Karo at this level of sheer fury. Even more shocking was the sight of a tall and strong Peacekeeper sitting on the ground in agony as Karo hissed at him. Thread had never seen the little pilot so angry and wondered if this was _the_ one emotion the both of them were extremely good at expressing.

"Karo!" Thread called out.

Karo hissed and had his wings opened. Thread had a good idea of the speed, agility and strength of Karo and waited for a moment to let Karo calm down.

His man had a bleeding fist. Karo had teeth like nails and the man had shock and pain on his face as he looked at his mangled fist.

Karo calmed down in a few moments. The locals tried to ignore the event but Thread had a problem: Karo had attacked a Peacekeeper –_ for good reason_ Thread judged. That didn't matter.

"Come on Karo." Thread said. "Come with me."

* * *

Azula found Karo in a cell in the back of the Justice Hall. The cell had a bunk bed and cinder block walls and a prisoner who looked very unhappy.

"Thread says the _death penalty_ applies." Karo sad on the moldy mattress of the bunk. "I _do_ not want to die here."

"You were assaulted by his goons." Azula looked visibly angry. "He has admitted as such to me but he says he can't leave you unpunished or it may make the people here harder to control or some kind of fascist crap. I would be a_ sorry soul_ if I thought like he did."

"That hardly matters." Karo couldn't cry but his voice grew shaky. "They are _his_ goons."

"Things have come out against us." Azula hesitated, "I can't think of anything to say."

Thread entered the cell block.

"Take him home." Thread looked annoyed as he unlocked the bolt of the dingy cinder block cell. "He has a month of house arrest."

"He defended himself." Azula protested. "He had no intent to cause trouble."

"I could _hang_ him!" Thread told Azula bluntly as he swung the jail door open. "That Peacekeeper lost his hand because of that bite. Take him home. He is not to leave the house for one month."

"Can I feed the birds?" Karo had given Peeta's family a new source of revenue because he bought the old or burned loaves for his beloved birds. Karo had fed them and discovered how to make music with the mockingjays.

"You _may not_ leave the house." Thread implored. "That means you can't go outside or you'll face punishment."

Azula understood this came as a blow to Karo. Karo hated confinement. He always had a keen sense of claustrophobia.

* * *

He delighted in his little habits and adored birds. He always had. Azula would make sure the birds got fed but Karo would miss them. Thread noticed he still looked visibly shaken but Thread had hoped the punishment did inflict the proper psychological pain on Karo.

Karo could not leave the house and needless to say, he hated it.

He couldn't feed the birds or go about for a walk even as the weather had begun to improve a bit.

Karo crafted a wicked but subtle revenge based on his knowledge and love of music and the mockingjays. He could open a window and sit in a chair and teach the mockingjays' music. He selected the best examples of modernist music from the works of Elgar, Shostakovitch, Prokofiev, Bartok, Korngold, Walton, Vaughan Williams and Simpson among others.

Azula began to recognize the themes from Shostakovitch's Tenth Symphony (the one written after the death of Stalin) echoing out over the town. She knew the piece and a single phrase of the fast, rough dark scherzo started the birds off in a flurry of dissonant music making. No one here had any knowledge of Shostakovitch or even owned a piano and that meant Karo had begun to show them something all together new.

Most of the locals had noticed the change in the calls from the typical folk song to the more formal, harder to reach and at times, jarring dynamics of the orchestra. Many had never realized the 'jays had such range or purity of voice. Some found it a bit distracting to have an orchestra wafting in and out of hearing as they went about their business. No one had any idea the 'jays could be so well schooled. They had thought the 'jays a kind of _'one trick pony'_ – they could sing songs. Few had any idea they were at all musical, much less could make for a persuasive orchestra in enough numbers.

Katniss watched Karo as he stood in the living room or upper bedroom window and taught the birds. Her and her sister wondered how he communicated with them but he dodged explanations. She didn't know if he was being elusive or honestly didn't fully comprehend how he had managed to train the birds.

Haymitch wanted to murder the idiot responsible for all the 'long haired' music so Katniss said nothing. Haymitch had heard the first movement of the_ Symphony in F Minor by Vaughan Williams_ at seven in the morning.

Thread didn't function on any real concepts of policing so the rights of the accused, evidence and proper procedure were not in his dictionary. He had sent Karo home to serve house arrest and noticed the distinct change in the music of the mockingjays within a few days after that. Karo had a habit of whistling complicated tunes and now the 'jays had learned those same tunes. Under normal circumstances, Thread had enough evidence to have Karo whipped but he had to keep_ both _of them safe. The musical tastes of Karo had a certain dark character – depressing or melancholy – and Thread worried this trend could worsen if Karo felt depressed.

Thread had thought of culling the birds. He had enough of a force to do the job. He left the birds alone. A cull might reduce the bird population for a week but others would come to fill the vacancies in _District 12_.

Azula was the other reason Thread left the birds alone. If Karo saw Peacekeepers hunting down _his_ birds, he'd be traumatized. Azula was loyal to Karo and held grudges, had a nasty temper and he hated the feeling he always ended up on the losing end of any argument.

Azula genuinely scared Thread. He believed anyone could kill if motivated. Azula had those strong fangs and she had the skills of a thief: she always came when summoned to the Justice Hall but had any number of ways of entering without tripping off the _guards __posted__ at every entrance_. He didn't want to wake up with her over his bed readying her fangs.

* * *

Azula had no doubt she could do _this _task and had refused any body armor – skill and speed decided whether she succeeded at this new test.

Azula had come up with this idea. Therius and Katniss took some convincing. Therius didn't want to end up at the wrong end of a firing squad for damaging Azula. Katniss and Azula disliked each other but Katniss didn't want to kill something as unique as Azula.

Therius had given Katniss a powerful bow exactly like the one she had used in _The Hunger Games_. Katniss had to try to shoot Azula as she stood still against the back of his house.

Azula had no doubt she could _'beat down' _Katniss.

Katniss didn't want to hurt Azula but she wanted to indulge in a little petty humiliation if that meant she didn't have to face her wrath. Azula had a venomous temper and made life unpleasant for everyone else if displeased. Katniss aimed just an inch away from her head and imagined the arrow striking the wooden siding.

Therius started up the high speed camera.

The red light of the camera coming on was Katniss's signal to fire.

Katniss could not work out what had happened at first. Azula had the arrow in her left hand. Katniss had seen Azula dodge just off to the side and then the arrow _appeared_ in her hand.

Therius immediately showed Katniss and Azula the slow motion footage on his camera. Azula hadn't moved until the arrow flew within a foot, then she dodged sideways and flapped her wings while grabbing the arrow out of the air. She hung in the air for a split second and then moved back to her original stance wearing a triumphant smile.

Katniss stood beside Azula in the back yard.

"What would have happened if I _hit_ you in the head?"

Azula looked down. "Have you seen me pissed off?"

"Yes?" Katniss admitted. "You put on quite the show."

"I'd get pissed off." Azula smiled. "You stood no chance though. They built me to withstand free fall from a ten story building into a tree and my chest and skull have the greatest strength. As a pilot, I have to have the best chance of survival possible. They built in software to anticipate the most likely line of fire from any projectile weapon and how to instinctively react to it. I don't ever want to face a madman with a gun but I can defend my passengers and my air crew."

Katniss had heard Karo and Azula had skeletons of some kind of light but strong material like the materials in Peacekeeper armor. She had not expected either the speed or tactical intelligence of Karo or Azula. _'They can dodge bullets' _she thought to herself.

"What would happen if I hid and ambushed you?" Katniss had to ask.

"If you tried to take me down like a human in one shot?" Azula answered back. "Strategy can never be underestimated. I doubt if my skull would fail but a good shot – a nasty cut. If you shot out an eye, I'd certainly be disoriented and in pain but the skull behind it probably wouldn't give. I never had to think about that."

"You can't be killed?" Katniss sneered. "Snow would love to put you in his games."

You can't kill me in the same way you can kill a human." Azula corrected Katniss. "I find it a horrifying prospect as a being who merely wants to live, to face people who are fighting to live. If Snow calls on us to fight in his_ Quarterly Qwell_ – misspelling noted – we have instructions to self destruct."

"Girls?" Therius held his digital camera. "We have a warm winter day and the_ Hunger Games_ are months away – can we talk about other matters?"

* * *

Azula flew overhead as Thread drilled the Peacekeepers under his command. She held much more menace given her ability to catch arrows and those fangs. She flew in circles against a sky threatening more snow and watched.

Thread didn't admit to fearing a schoolgirl sized robot but Azula made him wary. She didn't have the attitude of a meter tall school child but more of a bad tempered raccoon or a goose defending a nest.

Thread understood she could observe, record and convict him. If Panem did fall – a thought he never voiced out loud – Azula very well might have the testimony needed to have _him_ hung. The fear of her prying eyes had kept his bullying down to a minimum. He still held whippings, people ended up in the stocks but he dare hold no hangings. He had to keep the people of District 12 terrorized and savage injury did well enough.

He hated her.

He had thought about having her shot out of the sky with a high powered rifle. This went against all orders given to him and she had full knowledge of this and flaunted it. She always flew out of range of guns – she wasn't stupid. Two days ago, Thread had one Peacekeeper point at her with his assault weapon and as an experiment and it went badly for everyone involved.

She had no gun but had an ample amount of_ heinous _creativity. He had no idea she had a secret supply of horse chestnuts. His men had to put up with her dive bombing attacks and free falling nuts from above for a day. Even worse, she had a hiss, a howl and a shrieking scream that made skin crawl combined with a perfect sense of timing to inspire fear. She didn't hurt any Peacekeepers but they had a bad case of the jitters for days.

He had people executed for much less.

Thread watched out of the corner of his eye. She circled.

* * *

The weather had kept the mockingjays from coming out. Thread watched his men parade without the background sound track which made the day a little more bearable.

Few things sounded more beautiful than Karo and his mockingjays. He adored them and they gave him a vehicle for expressing his sadness and anguish.

Katniss didn't understand music but the 'jays had taken on a sad symphonic reach unknown in District 12. Karo could make her cry with his lush harmonies.

The birds adored Karo.

From him, the 'jays could sing to the people.

Thread had a fairly good idea of what was taking place.

People gathered in the square to hear the birds sing out. Karo had a vast library of music and yet was a composer of talent in his own right. He had his own syncopated style of music and had a deeply held sense of individual style. Thread had to deal with this in some way since Karo had found a voice and a profound one.

He called in Azula for a meeting on this _'issue'_. His Peacekeepers now regard the prospect of fetching Azula as the worst duty in_ District 12_. Peacekeepers had dart guns with varying doses of tranquilizers, net guns, stun guns and real guns but no one with perfect aim. A near miss simply would make her more badger like. One of his better men described her as a _'ball of hissing pain'_ in casual conversation so Thread was reduced to sending_ '__polite __requests'_.

Thread had one thing on his side: Azula _enjoyed_ annoying him and lived dangerously by her sharp sarcasm and love of petty torments. A well worded letter delivered by a quiet Peacekeeper often made her turn up to further try his patience.

Thread wondered when she planned to turn up for their latest meeting. She never used the front door and no quite worked out how she could break into the Justice Hall. Even if Thread believed she was on her way, he still had the surprise of figuring out where she might pop up.

Azula turned up at noon. She held up a piece of his letterhead then placed it on his desk.

"I didn't _do_ anything." Azula assumed her expected place – staring up at Thread across his desk.

"The mockingjays threaten to become more than a distraction." Thread gently thumped his hand on the desk. "We have some discontented people in this district."

"This hardly comes as a surprise." Azula snickered. "Let me guess – I'm heading the list?"

"You have plans to lead a rebellion?" Thread said slowly and darkly. "Perhaps you have plans to inspire the slow witted people of _District 12_ to overthrow their government? Maybe you and Karo are working together: a combination of your inscrutable scheming and his musical talent?"

Azula paced in circles.

Thread hated that moment when he realized he had given Azula some material to work with.

"Today he's practicing Ravel." Azula began deliberately. "I have as much fear about his musical intentions as you – he plans a full performance of the Ring Cycle of Wagner. _Dead German Gods_ and their mythology set to orchestral music and sung in German."

"I never understand what you mean." Thread complained.

"The Greeks and Romans had Gods and near mythical figures that inspired operas and plays by the likes of Shakespeare." Azula patiently explained this concept. "The Germans live in Europe and decided having their own_ dead gods_ could lend a touch of class to the country. Wagner came along and wrote a set of operas in German about the lives of these dead gods.."

"Dead German Gods?"

"The best kind," Azula confirmed. "Have you thought that like the _German National Socialists_ who worshiped Wagner for generations after his death, you may be reading a bit much in this? Karo has no clue how or why he should incite a rebellion. You confined him to the house and the mockingjays keep him happy and out of the way. He's awfully bored _but_ he wants to go home and not get involved with politics here."

Thread couldn't admit it but he did find the music a wonder. Karo was a machine! Yet he poured into the mockingjays a full measure of his soul.

An intricate harmony rang out over the square.

"So it will come down to me and a song?" Thread told Azula as he listened.

"The song will always win." Azula warned Thread.

* * *

Karo had heard the four note melody of _District 11_ and of Rue and poured his soul into the thinly disguised mourning. Everyone had seen last year's _Hunger Games _and his music demanded from them a measure of the justice her death demanded.

This was what brought Thread to Karo.

"People have been shot for less, you know." Thread entered the living room as Karo stood in the window. "I fear you may go to far with this music. I can't allow anyone to disturb the peace of the community."

"You can have them hung. I see the gallows in the square." Karo didn't turn as he motioned to his birds. He couldn't cry but the _Victor's Village_ began to sing a lament.

Thread disliked her, but he could understand Azula and her motivations. She wanted to leave and had no drive to express herself although she broke into places and stole things. Karo presented him with a complex, emotional mind troubled by confinement. Both of them had that same extraordinary stubborn streak and he couldn't come to grasp this. Karo had no plan to change his mind.

"I haven't disturbed your community, it was disturbed long before I came." Karo watched Thread take a seat on the stuffed chair. Karo took a break and sat on the loveseat. "The outside world knows almost nothing about your little dystopia called Panem. We've had places like Panem in the past but The Soviet Union, North Korea and Iran all failed after a time because people refuse to live without some hope for the future. Panem offers none of these things and in time will also fall."

"You have a dangerously democratic way of thinking." Thread warned quietly. "Even if what you say is _true_, I have a job to do."

Karo threw up his hands. "Humans have a great ability to see symbols where none exist. An entire industry of literary critics makes a living as academics by publishing entire books about symbols in literature or music or art. If you haven't burned the last copy of Shakespeare's _King Lear or Othello_, you'll notice the written footnotes printed to help the reader outnumber the actual printed words of the play by about seven to one. If you read the Japanese version - twenty to one. Those footnotes explain how this particular character symbolizes corruption or that one _with the skull_ symbolizes mortality and human frailty. Even at that, things seldom get any clearer. I have no ability to extract symbols from things like literature." Karo leaned forward and wagged his finger. "If you see rebellion in my music; _never forget you put it there_."

* * *

President Snow had heard the remarkable music. No one in Panem had the focus or skill for such an intricate musical work.

"I have no sense of smell." Karo remarked as Snow stood towering over him. Karo couldn't smell but his eyes watered and sometimes in his experience, that meant something was 'off'.

"I have told Katniss I should have had her killed. I had the sentimental oaf running last year's games executed for letting the two of them live." Snow grabbed Karo's delicate collar. "Tell me what a machine feels now?"

"Pity." Karo stood unmoved.

Snow let Karo drop to the floor.

"I should have known you'd be here. The black car and the spiking background radiation levels are a dead giveaway." Azula peered innocently from behind one of Snow's goons. "Did you come here to personally invite us to our execution?"

"You should caution your friend on the risks of rebellious music." Snow snapped.

"Ouch!" Azula felt herself lifted by her wings. "Karo! Were you listening to Bach again? Don't listen to_ 'fill in the name of a dead German guy here' _again or?" Azula turned and scowled at the black suited goon holding her up. Snow had a better class of train goon than Thread and this man had a firm grip and held her in such a way she couldn't use her teeth or move her wings. He held her up in such a way she couldn't reach his partner in crime with her teeth.

"If she makes a move, snap her in two!" Snow glared at Karo. "We wouldn't want _her _to die but accidents will happen."

"Did I ever tell you how much I love this place?" Azula replied. "The body snapping goons have a customer – ouch – oriented – ouch – yes I get it! You can snap me in two!"

"You have_ far too much_ of a mouth." Snow turned to Azula.

"I – ouch – you have pretty much made your point with the wing pulling off thing." Azula stared at Snow. "Your _Rent – A – Goon_ has quite the upper body strength. What do you want!?"

Snow was evil and by no means stupid. He heard the metallic snapping as she bit in the air. He didn't intend to get close. Azula was as nasty to deal with as Thread had reported and a moment of carelessness led to much pain. His guard had a tenuous grip on her only with some effort on his part and armored gloves did he hold her squirming body.

"I want obedience." Snow growled. "Take her outside and beat her senseless! When you've made your point, have the Peacekeepers and that dolt Thread assemble in the square. We're going bird hunting!"

Karo had time to react but no concept of what to do. Six more Peacekeepers rushed into the house and the two holding Azula dragged her out for her beating. Karo flapped to get to her but felt a shock in his whole body and flopped on the ground. He decided to hate bullies as two guards grabbed his wings and the other four went through the house smashing as they searched it.

The guards held Karo up.

"Do I cry now?" Karo asked. "I have read about the sorry specimens who kill birds and bully. Something in the literature _suggests_ crying repels them."

Snow had the look of a man trying to appear in control. He tried to stare at Karo in the eyes but Karo didn't blink which made the exercise painful. Outside one guard and then the other screamed in pain and shock while the ones holding Karo winced.

The back door slammed shut for some reason.

* * *

"I have a new scale for pain." Azula complained as Prim stitched a nasty gash in her forehead. "Off key singing of rap music –_ if that's possible_ – has met its match with that goon and his stun gun. The list of _'what they don't tell you'_ now includes the barbs from a taser have hooks that stick in you and need to be dug out."

_'Mache Dich Mein Herze Rein'_ rang out through the community. Snow had every mockingjay near the district culled and made Karo watch but to no avail. Karo had somehow signaled them to flee and his old friends returned with new music students eager to learn and now the songs and choruses of Karo began again. Karo had been spared Azula's beating but he couldn't believe in the kind of terror Snow inspired in others.

Azula had the same kind of blindness. Katniss had never cared much for Azula part because of jealousy. Snow's two best goons had beaten her up to teach her a lesson and yet she gave as good as she got. Azula didn't see the physical abuse as a message – perhaps she couldn't – she took it as a kind of moral offense by morally corrupt people and she _had to obey_ a deep urge to resist. The goons had worn armored gloves and hit her with stun guns, batons and kicked her savagely and she managed to land both of them in hospital. Snow decided to save the medical costs and had both of them executed.

Even as Prim helped the delicate looking girl by stitching up the hole left by the taser barb; Azula snapped at her long gone attackers.

"Quit trying to bite _me!_" Prim commanded and gave Azula a gentle slap to the side of the head. Azula had trouble holding still as Prim worked carefully to fix the gash in her forehead. Azula was a robot or cyborg but her flesh was the same as a human.

The same syncopated melody and strong harmonies filled the neighborhood as Katniss listened. Snow had a gift for causing pain but he had accomplished nothing. Even if Karo died, District 12 had a distinct sound that had colored everyone's life. Rues theme returned with the strong harmonies and a luscious counterpoint. Karo could have the jays sing out in any instrument and the birds loved it. Katniss had no idea that had touched Karo. A simple four note melody; the death of Rue, the shooting of an old man and all the pain the song had caused in District 11 came out in the music.

Karo faced the injustice of life and refused to accept it.

Prim patted Azula on the head.

"We're all done." She said approvingly. "I can hear Karo's good work."

* * *

Karo had become an icon of sorts. He stood in his window, mourning the loss but bravely waiting and teaching his birds.

This had not gone unnoticed.

Culling the 'jays had become policy but not a joyful duty. The Peacekeepers often neglected this duty – somehow it was utterly wrong even to them to destroy the_ 'soundtrack' _of daily life. Karo had two 'harps' and a whole 'jay section section as well as kettledrums. Even the most hardened Peacekeeper didn't want to kill the harpists.

"I came to launch a complaint." Azula strutted into Thread's office.

"You're healing nicely I see." Thread shot back. "I'm the man behind the desk but Snow runs this place."

"Evidently Elgar inspired Snow to have me good and soundly beaten. I suppose the man hates music in twelve eight time." Azula walked up to Thread's desk and pointed at her forehead. "Snow hates music or birds. Anyhow he had me beat up. You should have a pad and pencil out."

"I was made aware of this." Thread reclined in his leather chair.

"Does Elgar merit physical abuse?" Azula's amber eyes pierced Thread's forehead.

"Defiance merits punishment." Thread had tried to give up staring down the amber eyed pilots and couldn't; he never won but he had to try. "Karo can't continue to defy the authorities."

"The _'Proms'_ are still going ahead." Azula cleared her throat. "The BBC – the _Bird Broadcasting Corporation_ – has a new program of music from the Proms which will include new pieces from _'the cold and harsh places of the world'_ and will include Sibelius and Nielsen." Azula opened her hands. "I could go on – it's rather ambitious."

Thread could yell, stomp and show great anger but this didn't work and sent the wrong message. Everything Azula did defied _his_ authority and Karo had more motivation after his own ordeals.

Thread didn't move: he could almost hear Azula's amber eyes studying him for anger. "Everything we deal out to keep you in line makes you act out. We'll have to study further measures."

"I could have imagined a thousand and one more important things for a head of state to do and not one of them involves tasers and me." Azula expressed indignation and anger but not remorse. "Lucky for me the Everdeen family has a medical practice and they stitched me up and removed the taser barbs from my forehead. Do you know those barbs had to be dug out? I guess it wouldn't do _to have me beaten just to have the barbs come out once they had stopped my heart!_"

"Why are you telling me this?" Thread tented his fingers. "I support my President."

Azula remained as calm, refined and proper as ever and yet Thread knew she had come to cut him down to size. Snow had already done this and so this was Azula's way of piling on the petty humiliations.

"I could tell the Everdeen's goat." Azula walked back and forth. "Marginally less effective but since you represent what laughingly goes for law and order in this parasitic infested bowel of a district, you _are_ the one I came to."

"I can have you beat up too. I can have you put in the stocks and have rotten tomatoes thrown at you."

Azula laughed. "Like anyone has seen a tomato here in months."

Thread gritted his teeth. "Be gone woman!"

He motioned to his two guards.

"Are you two well insured?" Azula walked toward the two guards who looked at each other. They had now acquired the proper level of respect for her and stood back as she left.

* * *

"Can you sit still please?" Prim commanded Azula to quit jerking her head while she removed her sutures. "This will go faster if you stay still."

Azula had twitching ears.

Karo had a complicated musical mind and this time, Rue's theme had become a happy dance.

Prim adored it. She found the music made her duties of fixing broken bodies alongside her mother passed with less desperation.

Prim had stitched up Azula because Azula could get 'bitey' and mother had slower reflexes. Prim couldn't blame the girl – they had no local anesthetics and the snapping came as her natural response to the pain. Azula found Prim less intimidating and less of a threat than her mother.

A fussy dance tune wafted in from outside. Everyone wondered how he could keep all that music fresh in his memory and time the voices of the birds.

Karo had once said 'music is in everything and he had to simply listen'.

"Now do I have to talk to you like my cat?" Prim doubted if Azula posed a threat but each stitch made Azula twitch and Prim patiently reminded her that biting wasn't an option. Azula did show her fangs in a tentative way.

Katniss lacked the kind of patience to work like Prim or her mother. She'd end up slapping Azula if she had to put up with that snapping. She watched the sutures come out and felt some of Azula's pain but Prim had managed to fix her so she had no scars.

"Are we still friends?" Prim asked Azula as the last suture came out.

Azula stood up and bowed. "Of course."

* * *

Katniss walked out to stand and listen.

She worried about Karo. Panem was not the sort of place for the gentle. Life was a struggle. She had new struggles to face. A victor in the Hunger Games didn't mean freedom from want. She had a better house, financial security and the animosity of President Snow. Karo had angered Snow and might have a bad end.

Azula stood next to Katniss and felt her forehead. "I miss feeling safe."

A cold breeze blew through the village.

One day maybe you'll be safe." Katniss patted Azula's shoulder.

Therius could explain much of the manner in the mechanical functions of Karo and Azula. He couldn't grasp how they had become quite distinct characters with fully formed, quirky personalities. He described their minds scientifically as 'emergent' which was technical speak for _'they act like they have soul'. _He was the latest in a long line of experts who had tried and failed to build _'emergent systems'_ because they wanted a perfect thinking weapon.

"I don't mean to interrupt you," Therius had a spiral blue note book in his hand, "but I thought you should see this." Therius slid the blue book across the desk.

Thread leafed through the pages. "Where did you find this?" Snow must have had a reason for taking it, and now he had to find out what Snow wanted him to do with it.

"In the snow between our houses," Therius hesitated, "after Snow's men had finished with our little friends. I think one of the guards dropped it."

"I see." Thread found Karo 'a tad peculiar' and this book confirmed that opinion.

"Machines shouldn't compose music by hand or have a concept of art."

Karo had bought the book from a local store but had drawn musical staves between the blue lines. Karo had terrible handwriting, but the book clearly recorded music. He had used a fountain pen and written the comments and text in English. Thread couldn't read the music but the comments included timings, ideas once considered and discarded with the word – omit – and personal comments _'try this'_ or_ 'good'_ that showed an intricate musical mind at work.

Thread leafed through it. Karo shouldn't have had messy handwriting. Machines did things perfectly time after time until they failed or wore out. Thread couldn't read the music but the book contained fragments of three or four staves with notes about what they did, timing, where they belonged, what errors of style needed fixing.

"Charming." Thread spoke at long last. "I shall complete this, or someone in five, fifteen or five hundred year shall – or write a better work."

Peeta knocked on the door of the_ Fairy House_ with a blue notebook. The winter had retreated enough that the afternoon temperature rose above freeing and a small river of melt water and coal dust ran in a small trickle off the roof and down the driveway.

A peacekeeper had dropped it off at the bakery and told Peeta's parents that it belonged to Karo.

Peeta had peaked at its contents because he was curious about why Karo kept a diary. He found a notebook of music instead – even odder.

Karo answered the door.

"Someone found this and brought it to the bakery." Peeta held out the notebook. "I think it belongs to you."

Karo shuffled his feet. "I thought they had taken all of that to be burned. A waste of time because all of my music lives on in my head. Someone returned this? I admit to finding that surprising since _I've become a pariah among your leaders_. I thought everyone would obey them and stay away from me."

"You and your friend Azula are different," Peeta handed the blue book to Karo, "a crime here, I admit."

"Thank you for the return of the notebook." Karo bowed politely. "They took everything from us. My notes, the tablet computers and our media players. Anything electronic or entertaining has gone except for the television. That belongs to them – evidently."

Peeta regarded Karo as the more fortunate of the two – he lived largely in his mind as a musical hermit. Azula needed things to do and had taken up some very odd hobbies.

She found humiliating Thread one such hobby but this had limits. Thread wanted her dead as soon as he had the proper permissions. She had spent a day dive bombing cops with chestnuts and they wanted her dead. The locals privately found this funny although her calls of anger made everyone's nerves crawl.

Azula had proven a fine mouser. Katniss and Peeta had seen her in open spaces tracking them under the snow by radar and sound and flushing them into the open or against a wall; _but she didn't kill them_. She jumped and moved as if she absolutely had to corner the poor animal and she always found her mouse or vole or rat but spared them once she had them good and cornered.

No one could offer her an inducement to remove the pests. Peeta's mother had offered her payment for each mouse or rat she killed but Azula refused._ 'It wouldn't be sporting.' _said Azula. Peeta's mom then told her to keep out of their back yard.

"Foomp!" Azula jumped around in the front yard of Haymitch.

Azula had a mouse or something else located beneath the snow.

"Why does she hunt mice just to let them go?" Peeta asked Karo.

Karo saw Azula dancing in the wet snow. "She wants to keep herself sharp. We love playing hide and seek games – we chase things for fun." Karo seemed rather sad and distant. "Call it a _'glitch'_."

"Foomp" Azula moved a few paces toward a tree and landed a boot. She had her head bent down and her ears twitching which looked odd for such a human like creature. She had the look of a giggly school girl – part of her charm came from her playful nature. What Peeta had never expected was a machine that like playing games.

"I wonder what long term effects her radar beams will have on the mice." Karo's ears twitched as Azula worked away. "A thousand watts of radar energy can melt butter."

"Katniss would love to see what you two see." Peeta said admiringly.

Thread had some good fortune with Azula. Therius had discovered the two of them had all sorts of microwave and radio calls. They had a very refined multichannel radar used at night or to find things in the sky or – surprising to Thread – locate things below ground. In the air, their radar come out as a pure three centimeter beam, hunting mice led to a series of 'whoops' going up and down the microwave spectrum until they found a mouse or gopher. Aside from radar, they had dedicated bands to send information about what they detected, where they were located and what they saw. These came across as 'chirps' at ten, twenty and thirty centimeters. The chirps were what a speaker translated the thousands of packets of data they sent out.

Therius expressed some concern about the power of the beams. Each of them could send out thousand watt signals although some bursts nominally topped fifteen hundred watts – he had no idea what they functioned as. In an early experiment before Karo's house arrest, he had taken him to a deserted copse of trees and ramp up the power as he measured how well it carried. Karo did as asked and swept the beam over him. It didn't hurt him but he felt an itchy hum in his skin. He treated Azula with much more respect.

Despite growing shortages of materials in Panem, the Capitol had shipped Thread a microwave receiver similar to the one Therius used. Karo and Azula were the only ones using microwaves and so any chatter had to be them talking, tracking mice, finding things in the dark or flying around the town. The device gave him advance knowledge of Azula's arrival. She could enter the Justice Hall without tipping off the guards but she had a set of signature calls she let off when she gained access to ducts or some hidden space between the walls.

He didn't tell her he could eavesdrop. He had a need for an advantage over Azula and held out hope her chatty, endless stream of radar and radio calls could tell him something useful.

Thread's luck held over the weekend.

He had a chance to see her break into the bakery. Peeta had the task of opening up the bakery on a Saturday and through some kind of misfortune, he'd locked himself out. This wasn't that unusual and Peeta's mother always chewed him out.

Thread watched him leave and then return with Azula.

He could see the bakery through his window and watched a little cyborg looking much like a crow as she flew on top of the roof. Flight gave her an advantage over any human thief and he watched her walk over to an air vent and undo the grate. After she did some work with an old screw driver, the vent grate came off and she vanished inside.

The door opened a few moments later and she let a relieved Peeta into the shop.

Her habit of speaking her mind, her temper and her powerful personality had given rise to the delusion she was larger than life. She had fit through a grate the size of a hard covered school text book and for Thread, given the dilapidated state of the buildings in _District 12_; meant she could get into anything. The Justice Hall had many more holes in it than the bakery or the other shops and houses which explained how she could gain access.


End file.
